27 February 2018
Make art about telling or hearing from someone these so-important words.
28 February 2018
Yesterday I had a talk with my students, one I have with all of my classes at some point in the semester, a reminder that it’s okay to ask for help.
Make art about asking for help.
30 July 2017
Was asked by another young person to teach him about cooking and food preservation. Blows up my heart to pass the old wisdom on ❤
Make art about preserving and teaching old wisdom.
31 July 2017
Woke up hearing music this morning, a tenor singing down the hall, song woven through the fabric of my waking air
Make art about who you hear singing in the distance.
3 May 2017
Every day I sling the door open to my classroom, and enter, looking across the room at those amazing students, and greet them with”Good morning, you beautiful creatures!”
I hadn’t thought much about it, until apparently I missed a day greeting them this way, and I heard about it 🙂 “You didn’t call us beautiful creatures!”
And they are–so beautiful–these young creatures striving, focusing, questioning, and reaching, always reaching, even when they’re not sure yet what it is they’re reaching for. Some stumble, and fall. Some create the wind itself as they move from place to place. Others are much too hard on themselves, harder than we old people could be, harder even than the unbelievable media and family and societal pressure they carry on their young shoulders every day. They are creatures of grace, and incredible endurance, surviving, thriving even. in the mess we’ve left them.
They are dreamfog and summer storm and mountain clay and stardust. They are every road to everywhere, every path woven of hope and young hunger.
They are miraculous, these creatures, these wind dancers and fireaters, carrying their huge hearts out openly before them in their hands, offering them like gifts, like the gifts that they are. ❤
They’re funny, and they’re compassionate, and they’re curious, and wise, so much wiser than they’re given credit for, than they give themselves credit for, and I learn from them every time we’re together in those rooms. Every day they teach me, so I never forget what it is to dream.
Tonight, we shared a meal, and I listened to presentations for projects ranging from the environmental and natural–water quality, animal rescue, waste conversion for fuel–to a cross-section of the humane–programs for kids in poverty, kids with disabilities, for educating kids in technology, free financial services for students and for the poor, projects to help the hungry.
Tonight, I saw the future, y’all 🙂 and no matter how hard it seems right now, that future? It is indeed filled with beautiful, beautiful, beautiful creatures.
Make art about young people, about what we owe them, about what we can learn from them.
11 April 2017
One of the greatest gifts I’ve received in this life was a single statement. A wise and caring man said to me, “You know, you have a right to peace of mind.”
The simplicity of what he said stunned me in that moment. It also revealed to me how I, for too many reasons to list, more often than not, stood in my own way toward achieving that peace.
Had a wonderful and heartbreaking conversation with my students last night about just this thing, about what keeps them from ‘peace of mind.’ Worries and expectations, the fears they hold for the future, their own and the future of our planet. We talked about articulating these barriers, and about releasing them.
Make art about peace of mind.
4 December 2016
Make art about nothing going as you planned.
5 December 2016
Make art about driving in the dark.
6 December 2016
Make art about standing up for yourself.
7 December 2016
Make art about corruption, about calling out corruption.
8 December 2016
Make art about needing silence, about the recharge, rebirth, renewal of strength to be found a a period of silence.
9 December 2016
Make art about needing to scream, about the release, the energy, the power, to be found in a good primal scream.
10 December 2016
Make art about hospitals, about being in the hospital.
11 December 2016
Make art about drawing strength from the energy and creativity and spontaneity of young people.
12 December 2016
Make art about coming to terms with the inevitability of death.
Mary Carroll-Hackett: Poetry and Prose 
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